I live on my phone. From the second my alarm goes off in the morning I'm on Facebook, email, iMessage, Snapchat, and Instagram all day long. But there’s one time of day I don’t check my phone: before bed. Smartphones and laptops might make our lives more convenient, but they seriously hurt our sleep. Screens give off “blue” light, which keeps our brains brains from making melatonin, the hormone that helps us fall asleep. Study after study shows that people exposed to blue light late at night get fewer hours of restful sleep and feel more tired in the morning.
There are a few ways I've solved this problem. On my laptop, I installed f.lux, a program that filters out blue light. That way, even if I’m sending a late night email or checking Facebook I can still fall asleep. And instead of watching Netflix before bed, I've started reading a book, a magazine, anything on physical paper. It sounds old fashioned, but you should try it! Trust me, you’ll feel better in morning—and your verbal scores will improve too.